Structural foams are a cost effective way to meet structural requirements with a very low weight. In the automotive industry this means money.
The use of plastic as structural components has been increasing yearly in the building of automobiles. Plastics are lightweight, corrosion proof and in some cases recyclable. There is a cost in strength and in elevated temperature warpage with such plastics. Known plastic materials include sheet molded compounded (xe2x80x9cSMCxe2x80x9d) and ABS materials. In certain applications the strength of the plastic is not sufficient or the weight of the plastic is too much. It would be therefore desirable if some means could be provided to structurally reinforce such plastic materials. It would also be desirable if such means could be used for materials other than plastic and for uses other than in the automotive industry.
An object of this invention is to provide structural foams which meet the above needs.
A further object of this invention is to provide such structural foams which can be cured under heat or alternatively variations which can be cured at ambient temperature.
In accordance with this invention high performance structural foam is provided for stiffening parts, such as plastic. Such parts could be premolded parts, could be hollow, could be channel shaped or could simply be structural members of any shape which require reinforcement. The foam is preferably a two component syntactic material which may be expandable. The foam preferably contains beads such as glass, ceramic or plastic beads to provide the desired viscosity and to reduce weight and cost. A blowing agent could be used where the foam is expandable. The foam preferably also includes a rheological agent to control flow of the material. A curing system is used to control the polymer properties of the material. In addition, the foam could include diluents filler surface treatment, rubber and fibers as well as other additives.